Unlikely Dou
by Chazz 'Selrahc
Summary: KyoxJo  A series of semi related one shots.  01 Hot Wings: Apparently the romantic potential of hot wings has severely been underestimated...  T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Tachibana Kyohei, Kyo for short. He was a thin male with short black hair and grey eyes. But he wasn't overtly tall like most skinny guys, he was fairly average height and fairly average looks. Honestly if you were to meet him you'd assume him a weakling, a wuss, and generally you would be right.

However there are things that even the weak cannot stand for.

"I'll show her…" Kyo muttered darkly as he glared over at the trailers couch.

More specifically he glared at Jo.

Jo, despite the name, was a young woman. Her silver hair fell into her sleeping face, spiked up at odd angles due to not being brushed much. A stray strand of silver lay over closed eyes.

The eyes, when they were open, were a scary, almost evil, red. A red that made Kyo, on more than one occasion, quake in his boots and swallow hard. From the way they glared at him like he was in the way to how they seemed pierce his very soul. No, Kyo didn't think those eyes could possibly be human. And as such he generally tried not to piss Jo and her scary eyes off.

But sometimes a man must stand up for himself. Even when his very life may hang perilously in the balance. And over the last few months his pride had finally had enough and gave him the courage to try and teach Jo, dressed only in a long orange shirt, a lesson.

"What are you staring at?" Jo muttered. Kyo's back straightened and he turned back to the kitchen abruptly.

_There's no way I'm getting on her case about it._ Kyo thought as he walked briskly to the fridge, feeling a red eye watch him. _But that doesn't mean I won't prove my point! After all a man has to stand up for himself! Wait, that would make Jo more of a man then I am…_ Kyo shook his head as a rather perverted image came to mind.

"Concentrate!" Kyo shouted and banged his head into the fridge door.

Jo frowned at this. Kyo was acting strange, even for Kyo. But that oddly determined, stubborn, strong willed look that his face wore was interesting. She had never seen him so serious and intent, and it was kind of fascinating.

_Doesn't matter._ Jo rolled over and buried her face into the back of the couch. _He's probably just doing something stupid anyways…_ She closed her eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.

Instead she trained her sharp ears on Kyo, still curious as to what could make him, of all people, serious. Jo's ears were greeted with Kyo sniggering evilly as he did something or another in the kitchen.

Kyo was unaware of Jo's listening. If he had been then he probably would have gotten nervous and abandoned his plot. After all trying to pay back Jo, the genocide angel, was never a good idea. The last man who did wasn't technically qualified to be a man afterwards, and that was the luckiest one.

So what could have such an effect on the young man that he'd take life and limb into his own hands? Well it was last week…

* * *

Last week.

"When's dinner! I'm hungry!" Amy whined as she ran in through the door.

"Amy the world doesn't revolve around your stomach…" Meg started, but was cut off as her stomach gave an audible rumble. "Kyo when's dinner going to be done! I'm hungry!"

Kyo sighed. This was part of his daily routine. He'd come in and start dinner, and just as he was finished gathering all the ingredients from the pantry and fridge Meg and Amy would barge in demanding to eat. Kyo had honestly started to think they did this on purpose just to annoy him. It wasn't something he'd put past the red headed Meg and the hacker Amy.

Especially since Meg had been harboring a grudge against him for awhile now. Kyo couldn't really fathom why, after all he made it a point of his daily life not to piss off any of the women he worked for.

But in spite of this Meg had started to give him hard, almost angry, looks. Kyo may have been weak, but if it was just the angry stares Meg gave him Kyo wouldn't have minded too much. No it was when someone had trashed the kitchen and unplugged the fridge, spoiling all the food inside, that he started to get annoyed. Of course he probably would have blamed Jo for this; she was after all prone to a short temperament. But Jo and him were friends, well at least as close to friends as Jo made. And the night it happened he had taken Jo to a new horror movie that had just come out in theatres.

No. It wasn't Jo. That left Sei, Amy and Meg as suspects. Sei wouldn't have done it because in the end whatever food was ruined she would have to pay for, so Kyo scratched her off the suspects list. Then there was Amy… who liked to eat entirely too much to trash the kitchen.

So the only logical conclusion was Meg did it. This was further backed up by a couple of red hairs he found amongst his ruined knives…

"Kyo." Kyo looked up as Jo's voice graced his ears. She was wearing her normal attire, which wasn't much. A shirt and underwear along with cowboy boots. She said it was easier to fight in, and Kyo had never found it in him to argue.

"Yeah?" Kyo forced his eyes up from where he had been staring just below her neck, almost at her breast. He had been doing that a lot lately.

"You were spacing out." Jo didn't say anything about his staring. Honestly Kyo didn't think she cared if he stared, he was fairly sure she was gay anyways, but he didn't want to risk it.

"Sorry." Kyo bowed and went back to cooking.

With his back to Jo Kyo didn't notice her watch him a few moments, head tilted to the side and a neutral expression on her face.

However while Kyo didn't notice Jo's staring Meg did. And she didn't like it.

"Jo come on." Meg said as she walked towards the bed rooms. "I want to talk to you."

Jo glanced at Meg, then Kyo, and shrugged.

"Fine…" Jo walked away leaving Kyo with his food.

Food that he was sure would be to everyone's taste today. It was a new dish that he had been practicing, spicy Buffalo wings. He had the idea when he saw Jo cover one of his meals in hot sauce.

The thought process was that if Jo liked hot food then he'd cook hot food. After all no one else was overtly picky about what they ate. The pickiest was Amy and that was only when it came to vegetables.

"Kyo." Sei said as she stood behind the counter.

"Yes ma'am?" Kyo glanced up from where he was coating the chicken in a thick batter.

"What are you cooking?"This was a common question. Sei had to make sure Kyo cooking healthy meals for the crew, and while she trusted Kyo with the cooking she still checked on occasion.

"Spicy buffalo wings." Kyo said proudly. "And I'm going to serve a light salad to go with it." Sei nodded.

"Alright." Sei said. "But isn't that American food?" She raised a thin eyebrow. "I thought you specialized in Chinese, Italian and Japanese food?

"Well yeah." Kyo admitted. "But whatever I cook Jo covers in hot sauce right?" Sei nodded. "So since I always cook meals everyone else enjoys I figured I'd try something more to her tastes, if that's alright of course."

Sei smirked and nodded her approval. She figured that Kyo's motives were probably more complex than that, even if he didn't realize it, but she'd let it go for now.

"What does that mean?" Sei and Kyo glanced towards the bed rooms as Jo shouted.

"S-she sounds angry." Kyo swallowed, an angry Jo was dangerous Jo.

"Don't worry about it." Sei said as she walked towards the bedrooms. "I don't think she'd shoot you. Not unless you did something really stupid." Kyo winced, that made him feel so much safer.

"Well tell her dinner will be done soon." Kyo put the chicken in the frying pan. "And it ought to be a real treat."

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Kyo apologized as he set a large platter down on the table.

"You should be." Amy pouted. "I'm a growing girl after all." Kyo actually rolled his eyes at this. Amy had become something like a little sister, an annoying little sister.

"I'm with Amy on this one." Meg glared at Kyo, even angrier than normal. "Why do we even keep him around since he's so slow?" Sei shot Meg a pointed look and was about to say something when…

"It's fine." Jo muttered, dressed in her signature long orange shirt.

Meg shot Jo a look, which surprised Kyo, and Amy rolled her eyes. Sei just sighed and shook her head from side to side dejectedly.

Kyo smiled at the group. As weird as it may sound these people were important to him. Kyo wouldn't go so far as to say like a family but they were definitely important.

"Where's the hot sauce?" Jo frowned as she looked for it. Kyo sighed; Jo was going to be Jo.

"How about you taste it before adding hot sauce?" Kyo reasoned. "I made it spicy just for you." Jo looked into Kyo grey eyes with a frown. She didn't know quite what to think, so in the end she shrugged and put a piece in her mouth.

She chewed for a moment, still looking at Kyo in a bored way, and then frowned.

"Hot sauce." She held an outstretched hand.

"Huh?" Kyo said dumbly.

"It sucks; now give me the hot sauce." Jo said considerably less patiently.

"I agree with her." Meg added. "It really doesn't taste very good at all, are you sure you're qualified to be a chef?"

Kyo blinked before hanging his head and obeying. If he was to honest with himself that hurt a whole lot. He had practiced this recipe for weeks, only for Jo to reject it so uncaringly.

However Kyo, despite his general wussy tendency's, is human. And humans tend to turn hurt feelings into anger. So when Kyo went home for the day a plan started to hatch in his head…

* * *

Present day.

"Atomic buffalo wings." Kyo sniggered.

His plan was to make the hottest Buffalo wings that mankind had ever seen. With enough heat to melt even Jo's eyebrows.

And today was the perfect day. Sei had taken Meg and Amy out for dinner, something about celebrating someone's birthday, and Jo had decided to stay home. Which meant that the others wouldn't be caught in the atomic Buffalo wings fire.

"What?" Jo grunted, not sure if she had heard him right.

"Nothing!" Kyo said lamely.

Jo just shrugged. If it was important Kyo would probably tell her. Besides right now Jo had something more pressing to do, fall asleep until dinner. Which she did a few minutes later, soft snoring echoing across the trailer.

For but a moment Kyo felt guilty. Jo really hadn't meant to hurt his feelings, but damn it she insulted his food! And Meg had been reminding him of what Jo thought of his food all week...

No, there was no backing out now. Not when he was almost done cooking anyways.

It was with a pang of regret that Kyo picked up the platter and set it on the table. He stared down at the dark red wings and shuddered.

No, there was no way he could go through with this. He should throw them out now and cook something proper for Jo, hell he was even going to drown whatever he cooked in hot sauce for her.

"What's that smell?" Too late.

Jo was awake and slowly heading his way, the shirt falling down one shoulder. Kyo might have been able to make some kind of excuse to cook something else. But with Jo's shirt falling down so close to her chest like that… he was frozen.

"Are you okay?" Jo frowned at him, tilting her head to the side.

"I-I'm fine." Kyo straightened up and forced his blushing face to look into her eyes. "Just finished cooking…" Jo nodded and sat at the table. Jo was looking around the table with a familiar look.

"Where's the hot sauce?" And that was when it broke. Kyo was going through with it, his impending murder be damned!

"I don't think you'll need it." Kyo smirked, his eyes lighting up with that strange determination from before. "I made it spicy just for you."

Jo continued to stare up at him. The last time he said that his food wasn't really that good… but that look. Somewhere in her mind Jo was aware that she wasn't going to be able to say no to that look.

"Alright." Jo kicked a chair out. "Sit down." Kyo swallowed, resolve wavering a moment, and then sat down. Ready to take whatever cruel, probably painful, death Jo would dish out.

Jo put a piece of the chicken in her mouth. She chewed and slowly stopped, a frown crossing her face. Her scary red eyes moved over to look into Kyo's grey ones.

There was but a second when Kyo thought she was going to tell him it sucked and she wanted the hot sauce. In a way that would have been worse than being murdered.

So he was pleasantly surprised when Jo swallowed slowly, hesitantly, smiled.

"Wow, Kyo what did you do!" She sounded… happy? Jo happy at something he had done? Kyo was dreaming, that had to be it.

"W-Well I found a deal on some of the world's hottest peppers. And I concentrated that with a bunch of chili paste…." Kyo swallowed, that happy smile from Jo was starting to creep him out. "I-is it alright?"

"Damn!" Before Kyo could move he was being hugged. "Cook this more often!" And then he was released while Jo attacked the platter with a hunger he had never seen from her before. "You want one?" Jo offered him a piece of chicken.

"No." Kyo swallowed hard. "That would be a bad idea." Jo shrugged and put it in her mouth instead.

A few minutes later and a full Jo and mostly empty platter were all that remained.

"So… uh…" Kyo stood slowly, Jo's eyes following him. Though they were being back to her normal, kind of scary, eyes. "I guess I'm going to go now."

"It's kind of late." Jo yawned as she slowly stood. "And Sei can't drive you home. Why don't you stay?"

"Seriously?" Kyo was confused.

"Yeah." Jo grabbed his wrist. "Besides I just got the director's cut off that new movie and I wanted to show you." Kyo didn't offer any resistance.

After all it was only natural for a guy to want to hang out with his friend, right?

* * *

nine hours later.

"Jo where back!" Meg called cheerily as she strolled into the trailer. "We brought you back some food, after all Kyo probably didn't feed you anything good."

Sei and Amy followed Meg into the trailer. They were both worn out, even Amy, and were just looking forward to going to bed. Meg however was looking forward to seeing Jo...

"Huh." Meg said as she looked over the living room. "I guess she went to her room." Meg's already cheerful mood brightened up even more at that. "I should check on her, make sure Kyo actually fed her."

"Whatever." Sei muttered as she trudged towards her bed room.

"She's obsessed…" Amy muttered as she collapsed on the couch, sighing once as she fell asleep. Sleep that was interrupted as Meg shouted…

"What the hell is Kyo doing here!" Sei and Amy woke up considerably at that. And with an air of cautious curiosity approached the bedroom.

"Shut up and go away." A sleep Jo growled. "We're sleeping…"

On top of Jo's bed were two things. One was Jo, which was to be expected. The other however was not so expected.

Kyo was asleep, head resting against Jo's shoulder from where they were propped up against the wall. One of his arms was draped across her shoulder while the other was down on the bed, fingertips just brushing her thigh.

Jo, still clad in the large orange shirt, had a one arm around Kyo's waist while the other held the small TV in front of the pair.

"We're the key word." Meg shouted. "What are you doing with, with, that!" Meg pointed angrily at Kyo, who was somehow still asleep.

"Watching a movie." Jo said, and when Meg made it clear that answer wasn't good enough Jo elaborated. It's a small screen so he had to sit close. His arm over my shoulder was the most comfortable way to do it." Jo's anger was only slightly rising; apparently even Meg can get on Jo's nerves. "And we just fell asleep. Now get out."

Meg opened her mouth to protest when Sei grabbed the young woman's shoulder and pushed her, kicking and screaming, towards her room. Amy took a picture before closing the door and skipping happily to her room.

"Idiots." Jo muttered and leaned back against Kyo.

_Well, not complete idiots._ Jo had one eye on the silent TV as she rested against Kyo's soft body. _I did ask him to join me here…_

Apparently the romantic potential of hot wings has severely been underestimated…

**

* * *

(A/N)**

**Howdy.**

**I'm a huge fan of Burst Angel. Jo has been an inspiration for how I make my female leads in my original works, well except they wear more clothes, so I wanted to pay back the community. And since the only pairing's I write or straight I decided to do a Kyo x Jo piece. **

**It's not a common pairing. I mean I understand why and I know a Meg x Jo pairing is more likely. But I think writing a Kyo x Jo is more challenging. And I think it's cute (I know, I'm a guy and I said I thought it was cute. Get over it) **

**Now it's been a long time (couple years I think) since I've seen the series, and since I never had the chance to finish it, the characters are probably OC. Especially Jo near the end. And to top if off this is definitely not one of my finer works of writing, maybe a six or seven on a ten point scale. But hey I liked how it turned out so who cares?**

**Oh and this will be a series of semi connected one shots. So I'll post something whenever I have a good idea and get written out. Honestly I have a lot of writing projects (most of which have nothing to do with fanfiction unfortunately) so bear with me here. I'm aiming for a new one shot a month with this.**

**Eh, theres probably something else I should say but I can't think of it so… laters!**


	2. Are ya dead yet?

A tall European man looked down on an unconscious black haired Japanese male. The man's short and messy sandy blond hair fell into beast like hazel eyes.

Those eyes looked like a demons when combined with the rest of his face. Slightly pointed ears, pointed nose and especially his mouth full of pointed teeth.

A dark green, wrinkled, over shirt was worn over an off white T-shirt. Blue jeans hugged long, thin, legs and rested over pointed boots.

For all intensive purposes he looked some kind of demon, a demon who was frowning at an injured Japanese male.

"You alive?" The man nudged the male in the side. "I said are you alive!" He kicked the male, sending him rolling through the alley's trash and into the wall where he grunted.

"That hurt…" He whined, like a wuss.

"Jeez." The man scoffed as he kneeled on the ground, picking up mister Japanese's wallet. "Kyo is it?" The man ruffled through the wallet and had a large frown as he pulled out a wad of folded hundred dollar bills. "The hell is this?"

"It was pay day." Kyo's eyes were half closed and he looked pretty much dead, if he kept lying on the cold ground he might be dead soon.

"What the hell kind of job do you have?" The man tossed the wallet into Kyo's chest and frowned down at him.

"I work for miss Sei." Kyo slowly grabs his wallet and tucks it into his pants pocket. "She's a really kind boss."

"I'll say, what do you do?" The man, named Mat, walked over towards Kyo, hands in his pocket and back slouched like a delinquent. "Because I can only think of a few things that have money like that involved, and none of them are good for wuss's like you."

"I'm their chef." Kyo coughs, a fleck of blood coming forth and splattering the man's boot.

"Their chef?" Mat knelt down and frowned. "How many are there? A small army I'd hope…"

"Just the four of them." Kyo smiles a little bit. "But Jo eats like a small army... I swear there must be a hole in her stomach."

"Wait, there's a chick named Jo?" Mat raised an eyebrow. "You sure it's a chick? There are some guys that could pass as a girl you know, but I can't think of any with a guy's name." Kyo shook his head.

"Trust me, Jo's a girl…" Kyo blushed as he thought about how she dressed, if Jo were a guy it would have been painfully obvious. "But you'd never know from how she acts."

"Did she do this to you, wuss?" The man asked.

"No, there was a gang here. They were dealing some kind of drugs and saw me." Kyo struggles to sit up, but managed to lean up against the wall and look up at the man. "And beat me up. I was just lucky they didn't have a gun…"

"So you let 'em beat you up?" Mat sniggered. "Man you're a wuss, don't tell me your gay right?" Kyo's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to defend himself. "'Cause what women would want a weakling like you?"

Kyo looked away. He was clearly hurt by Mat's words.

"I'm not gay." Kyo's fist clenched. "There is a girl I like… but she'll never look at me like that."

"I can't blame her." Mat was baiting him now. "Look at your skinny ass. No muscle mass, and your clothes or frigin ugly. Hell I'd be surprised if any girl would be interested in you, ever." Kyo's head shot up, Mat was pushing all the right buttons. "You'll never be good in anything with a weak body like that. Hell you'd probably just hold her back…"

Mat hit one too many buttons. A weakened Kyo got to his feet and charged at Mat, swinging his fists wildly. Mat easily, proficiently, side stepped sloppily thrown blows.

"What is this it ya damned brat?" Mat grabbed one of Kyo's slender fists. "Armless shits punch better then you…" Mat was cut short as a weak kick hit him in the stomach. "Jeez, are these limbs or are they jelly?" Mat flipped Kyo over, hard.

He hit the ground with an exclamation. Kyo laid there, shaking in pain.

"I guess that's all you've get eh?" Mat smirked like a demon as he loomed over Kyo. "What about this girl you like? Does she mean so little that you'd just lay on the ground?" Kyo slowly glared up at Mat. "I wonder what kind of bitch she is if you like her? Must be pretty ugly…"

Kyo slowly pushed himself up. It was hard, his entire body said 'stay down and let him say what he wants.' But this guy…

"Take that back." Kyo barely managed to stand, his breathing labored.

"What will you do if I don't?" Mat had his hands his pocket and demonic smile on his face.

"I'll make you." Kyo tried to charge forwards, but his knees gave out and he fell instead.

Mat caught Kyo before he hit the ground. Kyo wanted to hit him so bad, but his arms didn't want to respond. He must have been beaten worse then he thought…

"You have the willpower." Mat observed. "You want to be strong for her right?"

"Yes." Kyo closed his eyes; he wanted to go to sleep so badly.

"Good." Mat slung Kyo over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you where we'll be meeting from now on."

"Meeting to do what?" Kyo mumbled.

"You'll see…"

Break

Jo was watching Kyo cook from the couch. Her white hair covered both eyes, making her look asleep. But Jo found it difficult to sleep when Kyo looked so… odd.

"What are you staring at?" Amy questioned, leaning on the arm of the couch by Jo's head.

How the young girl knew Jo wasn't sleeping was beyond the red eyed female. Much less how she knew Jo was staring at something, maybe it was a guess and if Jo was quite Amy would leave her alone?

"Jo I know you're not sleeping." Amy stated like she was reading jo's mind. "Come on, I'm bored!"

Jo shifted her head slightly so she could glare at Amy.

"I'm not staring." And went back to staring at Kyo.

"Are to." Amy persisted much like the child she was. "You know your acting funny."

_I'm acting funny? Have you seen how hunched forward Kyo's been walking?_ Jo rolled over and stared at the back of the couch, hoping Amy would leave her alone. _Or how tired and bruised he looks?_

"Fine." Amy said in the long, drawn out, way an exasperated child states something. "Your no fun, I'm going to go talk to Kyo."

Jo watched Amy skip over to Kyo. Kyo smiled and talked with the young girl, but he seemed all the more tired as they conversed.

No, it was clear something was wrong with Kyo. But no one seemed to either notice or care.

"Miss Sei." Kyo called as he pulled what looked, and smelled, like pizza out of the oven. "Dinner's ready." Homemade pizza that is, with delicious cheese and expertly crispy crust.

"Thank you." Sei called back.

"I'm leaving now, is that alright?" Kyo asked, even though he was already taking off the apron and heading for the door.

"Is something wrong?" Sei poked her head out from around the corner. "You've left as early as you could for almost a whole week now, is there something we should know about?"

Kyo jumped at this, turning around and trying to look innocent. Of course looking innocent by smiling nervously, shaking your hands back and forth and looking away from the person you're talking to rarely works on morons. And never, ever, works on anyone intelligent.

"N-no ma'am." Kyo's voice rose an octave or two as a result from his nervousness. "I just took up a few extra courses at school and I want to make sure all my works done. I can't fall behind, not if I want to succeed right?"

There was a moment of silence. In which everyone looked at Kyo, whose face slowly fell as his eye's scanned for a possible escape route.

"Well alright then." Sei shrugged and went back into the other room.

Jo frowned as Kyo sighed. There was no way Sei fell for that excuse, or did she not really care either?

"Well I'm off." And Kyo left at almost a fast walk, really more like a slow jog.

Jo watched the door a moment. And then rolled over to stare at the back of the couch. Kyo was in trouble, again. But he wouldn't tell them what it was about and worse yet for once no one was concerned…

"Jo are you going to eat?" Meg stopped to look down at Jo.

"Not hungry." Jo replied simply.

"Alright." Meg frowned down at Jo, and then shrugged and went to eat.

And so Jo was left alone on the couch for a few minutes before she felt something tossed unto her side. It landed with a sting, the heavy weight rolled off her side and to the couch cushion. Jo glared down at it, and frowned. It was one of her hand guns…

"Suit up." Sei had walked into the room, glancing down at a handheld device on occasion.

"What's going on?" Jo stood and took the gun, fixing Sei with one of her standard, serious, gazes.

"I want to know what's wrong with Kyo." Sei grinned as she flashed Jo the handheld tracking device. "If we hurry we can follow him before he's out of range and find out what's been wrong with him."

"Fine." Jo left to get ready.

_And when I find him._ Jo promised. _I'm going to make him swear to tell me what's wrong from now on, or I'll shoot him in the crotch…_

Break.

"Jo are you in position?" Sei's voice came over Jo's com unit.

"Almost."

Jo was walking silently along the cat walk of an abandoned warehouse. The old, worn, concrete walls were covered in graffiti of all descriptions. From the obscene and crudely drawn to some legitimate artwork with smooth, pretty, lines and vibrant colors.

Actually as Jo walked further into the warehouse the vibrant art was more and more common. And a theme was becoming clear.

Angels. The design was uniform, a blond haired angel with white wings and blood stained robes. The scenes the angel was depicted in ranged from a peaceful picnic in a plains, the angel was surrounded by children and other angels, to great battles against humans and demons, even other angels.

"Gah!" Jo easily forgot about the art work as Kyo's pained cry reached her ears.

"Ya damned brat!" A vicious voice cried. "Try again!"

Jo ran across the old, painted black, cat walk. It made a loud rattling sound as she did so, but Jo didn't care. It sounded like Kyo was getting killed…

"Just… give me a second." Jo came to the room and frowned down at Kyo.

Kyo was bleeding from a cut on his cheek, under his right eye. The left side of his face was bruised and generally looked like it had been driven over. Especially his now black eye.

His shirt's right arm was torn off and a rib ran down the front, showing off new muscle mass. His pants were ripped and scuffed and cut's could be seen under them.

"I'm not letting you win this time, Mat."

Across from Kyo stood Mat. He was hunched over, as per usual.

What wasn't usual was the bruise on the side of his neck and the cut on his cheek. A red spot was in between his eyes and the upper side of his right eye was starting to swell.

His green jacket was little more than tatters, from being accidently grabbed and ripped. His under shirt wasn't in much better shape. Rips and tears matched the cuts and bruises under it. His pants were torn under the right knee and a cut on his left thigh.

"Like ya have a choice damned brat." Mat put his hands in his pockets. "Come on, weakling."

Kyo ran at Mat and jump kicked at Mat's head. Mat stepped back, Kyo's foot missing by whole inches, and quickly spun.

Mat's longer legs gave him the reach needed to kick Kyo firmly in the rear as he landed. The hard edge of Mat's boot cut a tear across the back of Kyo's pants, revealing dark boxers.

Kyo stumbled from the blow and struggled to turn around to try and hit Mat again, but was to slow. By the time Kyo turned around Mat had rushed in and gave a bone cracking head but to Kyo.

"Ah!" Kyo screamed, grabbing his head, as he fell on his rear.

"Ya brat, don't overextend. Be aware of your reach and don't go beyond it." Mat instructed, spiting a glob of red saliva to the side. "Your advantage is you're small and fast. Not strong and with a lot of reach like me."

"But I can't get close to you!" It sounded like a whine, but then again everything he said sounded like a whine.

"Then try harder." Mat grabbed Kyo by the shirt collar, the injured fabric almost giving way as he dragged Kyo to his feet. "You want to be a burden to that woman you like? Or do you want to be able to last at least five seconds in a fire fight?"

Kyo looked up at Mat, opened his mouth to talk, and spat some blood which landed between his legs. He was hurt; a punch to the stomach earlier was really getting to him. But Kyo refused to lose to Mat.

With a shout he pushed himself to his feet and ran at Mat. Mat smirked and sent a chest level kick towards Kyo.

But the whiny young man side stepped and kept running at Mat, who smirked. Mat's fist shot out of his pocket and towards Kyo's head.

Kyo, in a quick move, tilted his head back and kept running. Mat's fist glanced off the top of Kyo's head as the young man leaned back. And then Mat felt a quick series of punches in his side.

"Good one!" Mat's fist came back and he gave Kyo an elbow in the throat. "But you can't fight like a linear driven wuss!"

With a cry Kyo collapsed onto the ground, flat on his back. Mat looked down at the grey eyed male who was breathing heavily. In truth there may have been a part of Mat that felt sorry for such a pitiful man like Kyo.

That part was however overruled by the part that kicked Kyo in the stomach. Kyo shouted as Mat ground his foot into the soft flesh of his mid section.

"Ya damned brat, I didn't say you could take a nap!" Mat shouted, stomping a few more times on Kyo for good measure.

"You don't have to be so violent." Kyo said as he got up, hugging his now flattened gut.

"You came here to learn how to fight and you're telling me to be less violent?" Mat raised one eyebrow and had an 'are you a moron' look on his face. "I should very seriously kick you again for that."

"I'd rather you not…" Kyo swallowed and shakily rested into a fighting stance.

"You know you can't get past me on the ground." Mat stated, fists moving in front of his head in a decidedly boxer like position.

"Then what do I do?" Kyo asked, Mat grinned.

"If you can't beat me on the ground." Mat's left raised into the air, finger pointing towards the ceiling. "The fly ya brat!"

Kyo blinked once, then twice. His face fell into shock when he realized Mat was serious, and Jo secretly found that look amusing on Kyo's face.

"What! I can't fly I'm not a bird!" Kyo took a step back, waving his hands in surrender as Mat walked towards him.

"Then what the hell are you?" Kyo backed into a pole and Mat seized the opportunity to grab him by the shirt. "You sure ain't anything strong. Maybe a little faster than most, a little more flexible, but let me tell you that won't work when you get bicycle kicked across the room. The only chance a damnable brat like you has if he can get some vertical movement."

Mat released Kyo and walked six feet away before turning back to grey eyed male. With a predatory smile Mat settled back into his boxer's stance. Kyo swallowed once, and then set his eyes in determination.

"Bring ya damned brat!" Mat pulled his right fist back and charged. Kyo dodged to the right as Mat swung, the blond's fist breaking through the metal pipe like it was nothing.

"Y-you're not holding back are you?" Kyo's shocked exclamation was even higher pitched than normal.

"No, and please tell me your voice hasn't broken yet!" Mat turned on Kyo and ran at him again. "Because if it has I'm going to feel bad about turning your balls into a pancake!"

Kyo jumped back as Mat's leg swung up, right between his legs. The now very frightened boy easily cleared three feet of air as he landed… well less then nimbly on the ground.

He stumbled beck, fell and rolled. Barely managing to get to his feet and jump away again as Mat's foot left a boot imprint in the concrete where Kyo had just been.

"Nice try." Mat spun fast, faster than Kyo thought possible, and sent his long out as far as it would go to crush Kyo's back. "But my range is just a little longer than yours!"

Kyo took a step back, Mat's booted foot just barely passing by him. Then Kyo jumped into the air and kicked.

A solid crack came from Mat's head as it jerked backwards. Then with a stumble Mat fell flat on his back, but not before delivering the promised kick to the groin on his way down.

"Why?" Kyo's eyes rolled up into his head as a pathetic whimper escaped his lips. Then he fell to the side, writhing in pain as Mat laughed.

"Nice one." Mat glanced at Kyo. "I guess you managed to beat me after all." Mat sat up and waited a few minutes for Kyo to stop screaming. "We're done for the day." Mat got up and brushed himself off, then offered Kyo a hand up. "Call in sick tomorrow. I need you here early."

"Why's that?" Kyo sounded wary as he let Mat pull him to his feet.

"Just do it." Mat leaned forward, looking very much like a demon who was about to steal Kyo's very life. "Or I'll have to come and find you, ya damnable brat!"

"O-okay!" And with that Kyo was retreating from the demon like blond as fast as he could.

"You've got to give the kid points, don't you?" Mat tilted his head up and grinned at Jo.

Jo frowned, briefly wondering how Mat spotted her, and leapt from the catwalk. With a grace that most cats would be envious of she landed in front of Mat, and proceeded to pull out a gun and point it at his head.

"Feisty." Mat leaned forward, letting the gun press against his forehead. "Tell me, are you the Jo Carpenter I've heard so much about?"

"And what if I am?" Jo pushed the gun a little harder into Mat's forehead, just to make sure he understood the situation of course.

"Then I hope you don't like buff guys." Mat stood back up, face falling to a frown. "Because to make him buff… Well I'd rather jump off a cliff, with a bomb, and land in front a train, a bullet train, with angry cybots on board, then make him buff."

"…What's going on here?" Jo let her free hand rest on her other handgun, for good measure.

"He wants to be stronger." Mat shrugged. "Some nonsense about not being a burden and wanting to get stronger for someone. It sounds like nonsense to me, but since I don't have anything better to do I said yes." Mat grinned. "I have to say, for someone so weak he can take a punch pretty wel…"

Mat didn't get to finish. Jo slugged him, sending the blond spinning through the air until he painfully came into contact with the ground.

"For someone so weak you can take a punch." Jo holstered her pistol and glared down at Mat while he slowly got to his feet.

"He wants to be strong." Mat grinned, spitting blood to the side. "So he's not a burden to you." Mat shrugged, which wound up more like a pained shudder, an started for the door. "Tomorrow will be dangerous. There's a sniper in the office, me and Kyo are going to get a gang back for hurting him. If they bring weapons I'll need someone to take of them, the weapons not the people." Mat had his devils grin as he looked Jo's way. "Can I count on you for that?"

"No, You can't." Jo turned her back to Mat and walked away. "Kyo can."

Mat laughed, a slightly high pitched and evil sound, as he walked into the street. The setting sun bathed the sky in purples and reds, a distant yellow halo descending on the horizon.

"The damn brat." Mat grinned and headed off towards his apartment. "Does he trouble everyone he meets? I bet he's always getting rescued by that crazy red eyed chick."

Mat had no idea…

**(A/N)**

**This one's been on the docket for awhile now. Honestly I'm leery of posting it. After I posted the last one I've gotten more hate mail then I expected. I expected some, honestly I predicted this piece would be shot down pretty thoroughly. But I have three times as many people sending me hate mail (still sending I might add) then I do reviews. And they have valid points, last time the ending was very OOC, though I would argue Kyo might work up the balls to do something like that. He's a wuss, but not as big of one as I remember (friend's getting me to rewatch the series)**

**So those constructive things I appreciate, and I'll admit and most of you will agree the last one sucked writing wise. However when (I'm copying and pasting) you call me a 'dickless mthr fck'in bastard wit no brn ad should dye' then I have a problem. If you don't like it fine, I respect that. I know this is not the popular pairing here and that's fine, I'm a strange guy anyways so being different doesn't bother me. But please tell me what you have a problem with so I can work on it instead of name bashing, thank you.**

…**Sorry, that was a rant…**

**Personally I'm chomping at the bit to write something serious here. I'll continue this for awhile and if I don't get crucified I'll do it.**

**As a side not I think everyone was in character better. Jo's probably still a little off, Meg, Amy and Sei didn't have much screen time so it's debatable. And I honestly believe if you jibed Kyo enough he would swing.**

**Oh and those of you that faved, alerted and reviewed pat yourself on the back. It proves someone likes this and as long as someone likes it I'll keep writing**

**And I forgot this last time as well (Though it should be obvious)**

**Disclaimer:**

**Eh… I'm pretty sure I don't own burst angel. And I'm not making money off of this, well I did talk someone into making a me a sandwich because of this but trust me a turkey and cheese is not worth much…**


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